MOONKISSED
Interviewed by Nicole
April 25, 2020
Four very short years ago, I was given the opportunity to help Khaya with a solo project she was working on. Since then, I have gotten to watch her grow, take chances, make mistakes, grow some more, make some more mistakes, and so on - but let me tell you, it has been an absolute joy. Khaya and I get drinks or coffee every so often to just catch up and see what is going on in each other’s lives. When she told me about her newest project she was starting with a best friend she had grown up with, of course I was over the moon (pun intended). She sent me some demos that were in the very baby stages - they were wacky and weird but they made me want to dance so of course when she told me they were playing their first gig at the Bowery Electric, I had to make an appearance.Flash forward to April of 2020, Khaya, Emily, & Leah are Moon Kissed.
How did you come up with your name?
Khaya: Before the age of Leah, we had another drummer and he had made a joke: “what if we called ourselves Moon Gel?”. So we went with that and we were playing some shows with it but it didn’t feel right. Fast forward to when we found Leah.
Leah: We went to a psychic. She was a lovely woman. At this point in time we were trying out all of these funny names that were mostly jokes and she told us that this project was something meaningful and we needed to not make light of it so the name needed to mean something. She sent us off to brainstorm names each on our own with the idea that we would then come back to talk it out and eventually come up with something together. When we ultimately came back together with our lists, we had nothing.
Emily: We had nothing, Leah and I didn’t write down anything.
Leah: We were supposed to fight it out and Khaya was the only one who brought anything.
Emily: See, Khaya had this one name that she really really liked and really really wanted.
Khaya: I came armed for battle and I was the only one who was prepared. I was ready for war!
Leah: Yes, yes, yes. What she had was '“Moon Kissed”.
Khaya: I just thought there was something so magical about the idea of being kissed in the moonlight. We randomly met Leah on New Years and that was such an important moment. The magic and romance of an evening like that, the anticipation of a new year’s kiss or just the romantic idea of being taken under the moon. I don’t know, I just fell in love with it.
I think he straight up said “sex” - just ‘sex”.
Nicole: Khaya, I have known you forever and ever, and I know putting this project together was a process and it took a lot of work to get you guys to where you are today. I mean I was just talking about those videos I took of this band’s first gig at the Bowery Electric with ‘he who shall not be named’. What was your experience the first time you three played together? Where were you guys, what were you doing, and how did you know that this was it?
Leah: Oh ya? Khaya and Emily tell me what you really thought of me !
Khaya: At the point in time I was putting this project together, Emily was my best friend and we have grown up together and been in bands together, so doing this with her just made sense. It took some trial and error with the third member of this band, but it was actually new years of what 2019 where Emily and I met Leah and we had such a wild night and meeting her felt like fate.
Emily: You know I think it was the show at Baby’s where something just clicked and the whole energy of our show and playing music just shifted and the way we could see the audience feeding off of us and the way we were feeding off of them was so freeing.
Nicole: Bringing the “magic back to music” - tell me about the conversation with your manager and the new direction you decided to take with the band!
Khaya: Emily and I were obsessed with this book “Meet Me in The Bathroom” by Lizzie Goodman which describes the rise of the music scene in New York City during the early 2000’s. In the book, Lizzie describes this kind of magic that existed in the city during that time and our manager was representing some of the bands mentioned in the book at the time, so we sat him down one day and asked him “what was different about New York back then and what was making things feel the way it did because we know it definitely doesn't feel that way right now?”
Leah: I think he straight up said “sex” - just “sex” - every one was doing drugs and going out until the sunrises and such like people are still doing today but back then, the concept of meeting someone in the bathroom and never seeing them ever again and going about the rest of your night to only end up with another stranger, or maybe two, was routine. I always even ask my grandparents, you grew up in what you guys describe as the most fun decades in history, and when asking them what made them different, they agree. It was the sex. People were much freer and liberated and sex didn’t mean more than just pleasure.
Khaya: So we took this and wallowed in it and we had to think about if we were going to sell sex, how to do it in a positive way that wasn’t necessarily about being “sexy” but allowing ourselves and our audience to become uninhibited.
If you want to take off your shirt, do it.
Nicole: The live space is super important for transcending the experience of your music. What has been the most important thing in terms of figuring that space out as a band? What have you learned thus far about that process and what advice would you give to bands trying to figure out that space for themselves?
Khaya: It’s tough right? People always talk about the “branding question”, which I absolutely hate but I think in all of my experience in music I have strived to figure out how to be my most genuine self in my music and on stage because anything else didn't feel right. I definitely know for us as a band that being ourselves was the most important thing.
Khaya: It was so insightful to get that change in perspective from our manager. We knew the live space was super important for getting the message of our music across but if we would be able to create that rare magical space for us and our fans for an hour a night, that would be the goal.
Leah: I always think about the idea of being a child and the concept of playing, being able to do whatever you want when you want to and not being afraid of what anyone else will think of you or say about you because you just don’t know any better and because of that, you don’t care. That’s the kind of energy we want to create. If you want to take off your shirt, do it. If you wanna make out with the person next to you - consensually of course - DO IT. If you wanna dance and scream and writhe on the floor with Khaya, do it.
Nicole: You were on tour when this pandemic hit. What was your spring supposed to look like? What was happening when shit, for lack of a better term, hit the fan and how were you able to respond? You guys are still actively involved in some very cool things. How are you guys staying motivated as a band during this time while we are stuck inside? What projects have you been able to be apart of because of all of this?
Khaya: It was strange we were on this tour and we had planned to keep our spring pretty open because we were heading to SXSW and we had a feeling something would happen or an opportunity would come up and we would have to shift gears… So i guess this was that something. The live space is such an important part of our music as a band so we have been having to figure out how to become successful in the other aspects of our art.
Leah: Yeah, someone made this super cool VR video for one of our songs and we have fans submitting art inspired by shows or photos or videos of their friends at shows or their favorite moments, etc.
Emily; Someone made a Tik Tok!
Nicole: Tell me your favorite moment as a band thus far?
Leah: I mean my favorite thing about performing is the GIRLS! The girls, oh my God. I mean during shows there is so much dancing and singing and winking and flirting and screaming! I love the girls! Like the anticipation of like maybe we might get to make out later but maybe we won’t, I just love that.
Emily: Oh my God but Leah that time I tackled you and the drum kit completely knocked over and like everything fell. That was so ridiculous, I wish we could create moments on stage like that every night.
